First Step!

Molly Grace took her first step today!! It was a teeny-tiny step, but it was a step! She was standing up all by herself and took a step toward me! She fell right down and took off crawling the rest of the way! We tried the rest of the day to get her to do it again, but she'd get too excited and collapse!

Oh Christmas Tree!

We decided to put up our tree the other day and finally got around to decorating it today. It was a totally different and much more fun experience with a little one all over the place! She was so into everything - and we loved it! Our decorations are sparse this year since most of our things are breakable. But we have the tree up and lots of singing/dancing santas around!

Here's a few pictures of Molly Grace helping us decorate!

Happy Thankgsiving

Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; For his loving kindness is everlasting. Psalm 105:1

Happy Thanksgiving! I am in awe at how much has changed in the last year! This time last year I was pregnant and not expecting to see my little girl in only a month! My dad was in the hospital recovering from a heart attack and open heart surgery. We ate Cracker Barrel takeout in his hospital room. But we were together and I was thankful!

This year, Molly Grace's first Thanksgiving, we were together with my entire family at my parents house. What a wonderful blessing to be all together. I am in awe at what the Lord has blessed me with. I am eternally grateful!

I have a husband who loves me unconditionally. He has seen me at my best and at my worst and loves me through it all. He has held me up when I needed strength and supported me no matter what.

My daughter has a daddy who adores her. The sparkle in his eye and joy in his voice when he's with her overwhelms me. I love the way he loves her. I love that he is involved in every aspect of her - he changes her, feeds her, rocks her, reads to her, plays with her... He is the daddy I thought he would be and so much more.

I am more than thankful for my sweet, precious, sassy, spunky little girl! I am so grateful that she is healthy, strong and thriving. I'm so thankful for her laugh, her kisses, her accomplishments, and her love.

I prayed for my sweet Molly Grace for 5 years before we were blessed with her. I'm thankful for the lessons the Lord taught me during that trial in our lives. I'm thankful for the patience and faith He taught me to have. And I'm thankful for the appreciation I have for my daughter because we waited so long for her.

I'm thankful everyday for our families. We are so blessed to have supportive, loving parents, siblings, grandma's, aunts, cousins... We are just blessed!

Today was a great day! Molly Grace ate a plateful for lunch and again for supper! She ate green beans, sweet potatoes, mac-n-cheese, turkey, dressing, rolls and pumpkin pie for dessert! We had to cut her off both meals! I'm so thankful for my little turkey!

Check-up for Ears

Molly Grace had her 2 week re-check for her ear infections yesterday. He said she still has a ton of fluid on her ears which isn't good, but there's really nothing we can for it except pray it doesn't turn into another infection! He did put her on Zyrtec twice a day to hopefully dry everything up and keep the fluid down.

Her weight was 19 lbs, 14 oz. And she got the 2nd round of her flu shot. She was pretty happy up until that point!

One Foot in Front of the Other

Molly Grace walked across the living room pushing her walker tonight! We both just stared in amazement! It was so funny and amazing to see her doing that!

I really thought she was going to take a step on her own tonight, but she just plopped down instead! She was standing straight up reaching for me and I really thought she would!

The Little Things

I'm feeling incredibly blessed and thankful today! The older I get, the more I realize it's the little things in life that bring the most joy!

As I walked away this morning after dropping MG off with her granny, I looked back to see her waving like crazy at me. It made me smile from the inside out!

Everytime I hear her sweet little voice say any combination of babbles, it fills me with joy!

Tonight MG leaned over, grabbed my hair and kissed me. There's never been a sweeter kiss!

While playing with one of her toys tonight, she figured out where to drop the ball all on her own - after playing with it for weeks! Her triumphs are mine!

Her daddy walked out of the room tonight and she stood up all by herself and reached her arms out to go with him. She's so big!

Tonight my world was complete when she (willingly!) crawled up in my lap, layed her head on my shoulder and let me read her a story.

I love that she's my biggest fan and I'm hers! She sat across from me on the floor tonight and smiled while I sang at least 10 songs to her! Who else could listen to me sing that long?!

I love it when she claps and says "yayyay!". She's filled with joy from head to toe!

My little miracle has filled a spot in my heart I never knew was empty!

Tooth #6

I should've known there was another tooth on it's way with that nasty cold and ear infection! She finally let me feel today (after biting me HARD 3 times!) and sure enough, she's got her upper left tooth!

Christmas Shopping Fun!

We went birthday/Christmas shopping today and had a great time! The mall was so crowded, though, so we only went to a couple stores. We ended up buying so much at Target. We got MG several toys and a few outfits. I had to take her out of the stroller and carry her so we could load the stroller down with toys! She was in awe!

The not so fun part of today is that the amoxicillin she's been on has been giving her diarrhea. So...I've changed 6 dirty diapers today. The even more not fun part is that the diarrhea has given her her first diaper rash. Yuck!

Every time I changed her diaper today I'd let her play naked for a while. She loved it! We thought it was so funny until she crawled over off the rug, sat on the hardwood floor and peed all over it then scooted and rolled all around! I guess the cold floor shocked her! ha!

Back to Normal

...Finally!! Molly Grace is finally feeling better. She's a lot more like her old self today. She played and played tonight! She was all over the place! She loves to hide under blankets so we made a tent in the living room. I can remember making so many tents in my living room growing up. It was so much fun doing the same thing with my baby girl so many years later!

She stood up so many times tonight and for so long. It's so funny to see such a little thing just standing there in the middle of the floor!

She's back to laughing again. She was so puny for so long, it was great to hear her sweet little cackle.

The best thing of all was that for the very first time tonight she looked right at me and said "ma-ma-ma" then she looked at Jamey and said "da-da".

She's still really snuggly - that's a side effect of her being sick that I really love! She crawled up in my lap and laid her head on my chest and snuggled so many times tonight. I just try to soak it all up while I can!

Another (Not So Fun) "First"

Molly Grace has her first ear infection - in both ears. Her cough got worse yesterday and her fever kept getting higher. It was 102 this morning so I decided to make a trip to the ped's office for "Sick Call". We walked in 2 minutes before they officially opened and we were the 11th person to sign in! The waiting room was full of sick, coughing, puking kids. My "sick" baby was the only one talking, growling and fussing to get down! At that point I was wondering what in the world we were doing there and fearing what we could catch before we could get out!

Her fever was down to 99 (thanks to Motrin) when the nurse took it. He told me before he even looked at her that it was probably an ear infection. He said if a cold is going to cause a fever, it does from the beginning. If a fever develops a day or more into a cold then there's probably an infection of some sort - good information to know!

We were sent home with the yummy bubblegum amoxicillin. I decided to take the whole day off with her since she was so miserable. She was my siamese twin all day long. She wouldn't let me out of her sight and just wanted to be held and sleep. She's not eating too well, but she's wanting to drink water all day which is good.

Bedtime was rough tonight. She didn't want to be laid down. We started bedtime at 7:30 and she just now stopped crying and (fingers crossed) is asleep (it's 9:30!). I refuse to let her "cry it out" while she's sick. I rocked her and rocked her and rocked her! When that didn't work, I decided to lay her down and just stand by the crib. Everytime she'd get up and cry I'd kiss her and lay her down. I never left until she was asleep. I figure that was a nice compromise! I really just wanted to scoop her up, take her to bed with me and cuddle her all night long!

Hopefully she will start feeling a lot better tomorrow!

**Since we were at the doctor today we got a new weight! You now weigh 19 lbs 12 oz. Not a big jump from last month!

Weekend Getaway

We had a much needed getaway planned for this weekend to Branson, MO to do some Christmas shopping and visit with family. My husband's family started this last year and we were excited to go back again. Last year I was pregnant and this year we took a 10 month old - night and day difference! I was a little frantic about taking her off 4 hours away for 2 nights - packing makes me crazy! ha! We were both off Friday and were planning to leave early that morning. Of course Thursday my child comes down with a cold! I didn't think too much about it, just assuming it was a little cold and she'd be fine. The pediatrician called her in some medicine to take with us. She slept 3 of the 4 hours we were on the road - that was my first clue that things weren't going to go well! For her to sleep that long, she obviously didn't feel good. We got there Friday afternoon and ran a couple places. Molly Grace had a great time playing with her cousins, but obviously didn't feel good. She had the worst night ever. I finally put her in bed with us, but she tossed, turned, kicked, rolled and snored all night long. I felt horrible for her. Saturday she woke up in a pretty good mood, but still so congested and running a low grade fever. We ran a few places, but spent most of the day letting her nap and play when she would. We had a family dinner out Saturday night and she didn't handle it so well. By then she had developed a nasty cough that really had my worried. She fell asleep on the way home from dinner and ended up going to bed at 6 pm. She woke herself up at 9 coughing. At that point we packed everything up and headed home! We got home around 1am. She slept the whole way, thankfully. But she hacked and coughed the entire time. She had a really restless night after we got home, but took a 3 hour nap this morning and is asleep again right now. I guess we'll be seeing the dr. tomorrow!

If You're Happy and You Know it Clap Your Hands!

Molly Grace finally started clapping! She did it the other day, but I thought maybe it was just a fluke! Today she was looking out the window and was so excited. She started smiling and waving her hands around then she started clapping! It was the cutest thing ever! Everything she does is cute!